BAILEYVILLE – Three teenage boys have been arrested on felony charges that they killed a 15-year-old family cat.

The three, two from Baileyville, ages 14 and 15, and a 16-year-old from Princeton, were arrested last week on charges of aggravated cruelty to animals after police determined that they had killed a cat owned by Michelle Gallant and her family.

“We were able to determine that it was killed at the hands of the juveniles,” Police Chief Philip Harriman said Tuesday. “It is difficult to say exactly what caused its death.”

Officials did not perform a necropsy on the animal, Harriman said.

All three, whose identities were not released because of their ages, have been released into their parents’ custody.

This is the first time within memory that the community has been hit with a case like this, the chief said.

“This has been a real tragedy for everyone involved,” he said Tuesday.

The cat named Pepper had been a part of the Gallant family since she was a kitten.

According to a tearful Michelle Gallant, the cat disappeared last week after one of the boys was seen holding the animal outside the Gallant home.

“We saw one of the boys with the cat in his hands, walking away with it,” she said. “My son said, ‘Put down our cat,’ and he did, and my son said, ‘Thank you.'”

The cat was a friendly animal and enchanted the customers at Gallant’s home beauty shop, many of whom have cried with the owner since learning about Pepper’s fate.

“All my customers adored her; when they came through the door she would run to them,” Gallant said. “She was a real friendly cat. That was the only way they got her. She went with them because she trusted them.”

It was not unusual for Pepper to disappear on a summer night to go hunting. When the cat had not returned in a few days, however, Gallant grew concerned and mentioned it to a friend at a high school soccer game.

A girl overheard her conversation and, after the game, told the friend she had heard students talking about witnessing a cat being killed.

Gallant knew the boy the girl had referred to and confronted him. He denied the tale and she believed him.

“We knew him. He had played soccer with my son,” she said.

Shortly afterward, the boy’s mother called and said he had confessed to witnessing the killing.

Police questioned the three boys and determined that they had killed the animal.

“She didn’t deserve this,” Gallant said. “She was a loving part of our family. She deserved more than this. She should have been allowed to go in her own time and not be taken from us by these cowards.”

The boys initially said they had thrown the cat over a fence, and Gallant and her family searched the area.

Eventually, Harriman said, the boys confessed that they had left the cat in a Dumpster near a local business.

“We were able to recover the cat so it could be buried,” he said.

The cat was buried in a field near a family home.

The boys have been charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, which is a felony. A drafting error had caused the charge to be listed as a misdemeanor in Maine until the Legislature earlier this year reinstated it as a felony.

“I just wish they could feel one bit of the pain that I feel,” Gallant said. “They’ve taken something from us that we’ll never get back. But I believe they need help – counseling.”

No date has been set for the boys to appear in court. That will likely be scheduled in December, Harriman said.